Utensil for moistening stamps, envelops, &amp; c.



Pateliged Nov. 20, I900.

0. L. JENNE, un-msu. FOR MmsTENmG STAMPS, ENVELOPS, 8w.

(Application filed May 14, 1900.) (N o M 0 d e l LII llwrrnn STATES ATENT CHARLES L. JENNE, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 662,196, dated November 20, 1900.

Application filed May 14, 1900' Serial No. 16.593. (N0 model.)

To all whom 2375 may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES L. JENNE, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Utensils for Moistening Stamps, Envelops, &c., of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a device or utensil for use in offices and elsewhere, especially for moistening postage-stamps and the gummed flaps of envelops, whereby the necessity of licking them may be obviated.

The invention comprises a pan-like base portion or holder for an absorbent pad and has combined therewith a fount or receptacle for water from which a suitable quantity of the liquid will be supplied to the pad-holding pan or receptacle for maintaining the pad in an ever-moist condition. There is also combined with the utensil a swinging device which is pivotally mounted and adapted to move toward the pad against a spring reaction and to be self-retracting when the pressure positively applied thereon is relieved, this device serving as asupport on which the stamp may be placed and as of such an openwork construction that when coming upon the pad it has but slight area of bearing thereon, so that substantially all of the surface of the stamp may be brought down against the pad to be moistened thereby.

The invention consists in the parts and appliances constructed, combined, and arranged, all substantially as hereinafter fully described, and set forth in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanyin drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the stam pmoistening utensil and indicating its manner of use. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal vertical sectional view through the stamp-moistening utensil. Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially on the line 3 3, Fig. 2.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all of the views.

In the drawings, A represents the base portion of the utensil, which is constructed in the form of a pan-like holder for the absorbent pad B and'has rising thereabove at the rear of the pad the fount or receptacle 0. As shown, the base has the upstanding wall a, the rear portion of which is socketed and receives therein the lower part of the inverted shell which constitutes the fount, the same having a stoppered filling-opening d at an upper portion thereof. The shell or wall which makes the fount-inclosure has the openingf near its bottom ,whereby communication from the fonnt to the forward portion of the panlike base, which constitutes the pad-holder, is established. By having a considerable quantity of Water in the fount and keeping the opening closed at d the water will rise in the pan-like pad-holder only to about the level of the top of the openingf, as is well known in these self-feeding founts of the class in which this is comprised. The forward portion of the pan-like extension or pad-holder is constructed with the internal ledge g somewhat below the top of the holder, and the open-work pad-support or perforated plate rests on said ledge. The pad B may be of felt or any suitable or approved absorbent material and, as shown, closely fits the forward holding extension of the base therefor.

The lower portion of the utensil is constructed with bosses or trnnnions h h, which constitute the pivotal supports for aswinging wire device D. This device is composed of a single length of spring-wire, the intermediate portion of which has corrugations 10,transversely arranged, and rearwardly-extending opposite arms 12 12, arranged substantially in the plane occupied by the corrugations,and between the said corrugations and the extremities of the Wire, which are twisted on each other or united, as indicated at 13, the wire has the opposite coils or eyes 14, which engage the said pivot-trunnions h.

The portion ofthe device 15 to the rearof the place of the pivotal mounting occupies a plane moistened, it being apparent that the small portion of the surface in contact with the stamp does not materially interfere with the substantially thorough moistening which the stamp may acquire by being brought in contact with the pad. Moreover, the stamp or strip of stamps mayhave a sliding motion across the swinging support D and the pad. The device D, reacting,serves to lift the stamp or stamps from the pad after moistening.

The device may be used as a presser, the stamp being drawn in direct contact across the pad being borne upon atits top ungum med side by the said depressible and spring-retracting device D.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. A stamp-moistening device consisting of afount and a pan-like base, a portion of which extends forwardly of the lower portion of the fount, and which receives therein its supply of liquid from the fount, and which is provided with an upwardly-exposed absorbent pad, a skeletonized or open-work stampsupport pivotally mounted on the fonnt and adapted to be swung toward and against the pad, and spring-reacting means for swinging the stamp-support to a normal position upwardly out of contact with the pad, for the purposes set forth.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination of the fount, the extended portion of the base being in the form of a pan or holder, a perforated plate supported above the bottom of said extended portion, a pad resting on said perforated plate, and the wire device D comprising the corrugated portion 10, the rearwardly-extending arms 12, 12, arranged in the plane of said corrugations, the eyes 14, 14, and the angularly-extended extremities 15,l5,engaged the one with the other, and arranged angularly to the said parts 10 and 12, the said device being pivotally connected through its eyes to the fount, substantially as described.

Signed by me at Springfield,Massachusetts, this 5th day of May, 1900.

CHARLES L. JENNE. WVitn esses:

WM. S. BELLOWS, J. D. GARFIELD. 

